Profiles: Waterways people
CRT chief exec outlines vision at Crick
Canal & River Trust chief executive Campbell Robb used his first appearance at the Crick Boat Show to set out an optimistic vision for the future of the waterways, while acknowledging the scale of the challenges facing the 2,000-mile network.
Campbell Robb
In his second week as chief executive of the Canal & River Trust, Campbell Robb spoke to WN about his new position
Matthew Symonds
Matthew Symonds, CRT national boating manager, says the charity has listened to boaters’ concerns and is now prioritising them with the Better Boating Plan
What’s the background to this initiative?
We know that our boater satisfaction scores have been going down for a while and last year they dropped significantly. We’ve had lots of challenges over recent years: renegotiating the government grant, dealing with reservoir infrastructure issues plus a lot of other major reactive work to climate change and storm damage. I think we have to hold our hands up and say that those were draws on our resources and time, and this has meant that we’ve had less of a focus on day-to-day maintenance and repairs, and the things that matter to boaters. So, unsurprisingly, we’ve seen boaters’ satisfaction drop below 50% and that’s not where we want it to be.
Riding the waves with a Severn pilot
Fiona Burt explores the day-to-day role of Carl Merry, one of four professional Severn boat pilots
Carl Merry has been a pilot on the River Severn for 20 years. He’s one of only four Gloucester pilots who cover some 40 nautical miles from Barry Roads in South Wales up to Sharpness Port in Gloucestershire.
